Grove Koger
January 1 is the anniversary of the day in 1917 that a noted Spanish ferry company began operation. Formed from the merger of several older companies the previous year, Compañia Trasmediterránea held a monopoly for decades on routes between the Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands (Majorca, Minorca, and Ibiza), the Canary Islands, and the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast. For several decades, when land transportation was more of a challenge, the company also ran ferries between various cities on the coasts of mainland Spain. An itinerary for 1929 I bought years ago lists, for instance, routes between Barcelona and Cádiz, between Bilbao and Málaga, and so on.
At one time, the company also scheduled ferries to the colonies of Spanish Sahara and Spanish Guinea, as well as to the Italian port of Genoa and the English port of Portsmouth.
My first wife and I took a Trasmediterránea ferry from Barcelona to Ibiza in the 1970s, and we had vague plans to book a trip aboard another one of its ships to Spanish Sahara by way of the Canary Islands. The territory was essentially off-limits to non-Spaniards without governmental permission, but when the time came to apply for the necessary papers, we had run out of energy. Shortly afterward, Morocco invaded the territory and has occupied most of it—in the face of international condemnation—ever since. I think we all understand that you can’t step in the same river twice, but there are too many rivers that we never step in even once.
In the early years of this century, Compañia Trasmediterránea was purchased by a consortium of other companies and now operates officially under the name Acciona Trasmediterránea. And somewhere along the line, it’s added a connection to Rome’s port of Civitavecchia.
Maggie and I have taken the company’s ferries to Majorca and Minorca several times over the past two decades. The ships are bigger and faster than they once were, but they’re no longer quite as elegant; they’re simply a means of transportation. But they continue to offer opportunities to savor those twin enigmas, departure and arrival, to their fullest.
The images of the stock certificate, schedule, and company logo in today’s post are reproduced from my collection of travel memorabilia.
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